I am a Managing Partner at Brookside Strategies, LLC, an energy and utility management consulting firm based in Darien, Connecticut. I've spilled blood, sweat and tears grappling with the full spectrum of barriers and misconceptions about distributed generation and energy-efficiency technologies. Previously, I practiced law in New York City at Paul Weiss Rifkind Garrison & Wharton, LLP and Jenner & Block, LLP. I also attended journalism school at Columbia University and earned a JD at Stanford Law School. I've written about energy and environmental issues for Forbes, The Nation, Mother Jones and several other publications. I am the Chair of the Northeast Clean Heat and Power Initiative. Drop me a line - or two - at wmp@cleanbeta.com.

World's Most Powerful Solar-Power Panels

In October, my brother-in-law embarked on a six-month tour of rural Mexico in a beat-up Winnebago. The experience is reportedly everything he had hoped it would be with one caveat: the solar panels he bought aren’t producing enough power during the daylight hours to keep the lights on at night.

“The battery isn’t the problem,” my brother-in-law told me over a few days ago over a plate full of Christmas pudding. “I could buy a dozen more batteries and I would still have the same problem. I need better solar panels.”

Thanks to the good people at Solar Plaza, an information portal for the international solar photovoltaic (PV) industry, people like my brother-in-law may find the search for the perfect solar panel less time consuming than it was in the past.

Solar Plaza identified the 1o most efficient poly-crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic modules available on the market today based on product datasheets and other publicly available sources of information, which are listed below.

The most-efficient solar module on the market today is sold by Solland Solar, a start-up company founded in Holland in 2003 near Aachen, Germany. More specifically, the “Sunweb” module sold by Solland Solar takes the top spot with an efficiency of 16.00%. The Solland Solar module is made out of poly-crystalline silicon solar PV cells. This is not always the most efficient or otherwise suitable solar-cell technology.

A solar module – or “panel” – is a bundle of solar PV cells connected under a glass (or similar) surface. A solar-PV cell consists of two or more thin layers of semi-conducting material, most commonly silicon. When sunlight hits the silicon, electrical charges are generated, which the cell conducts away as direct current (DC) using metal contacts. The electricity produced by a single cell is too small to power most applications. As a result, multiple cells are combined into modules, which are the basic building block of a solar PV system. Modules can be further scaled into commercial or industrial scale solar-PV arrays.

Over the past half century, the science and technology of PV solar cells and systems has made revolutionary advances. In the 1960s and 1970s, it took more energy to make a solar cell than the cell could produce during its lifetime. But the dramatic improvements that have taken place in solar-cell efficiency and manufacturing methods have removed this problem and in the process reduced energy payback periods to about 2-4 years, depending on the location of use, according to the World Energy Council’s 2010 Survey of Energy Resources.

In 2009, the world added an estimated even gigawatts of solar PV capacity, bringing the cumulative installed capacity to more than 20.4 gigawatts, according to the International Energy Agency‘s survey report on “Trends In Photovoltaic Applications.”

Monocrystalline silicon cells, which are made from a single crystal of silicon, are typically the most efficient of the PV technologies. The catch is that the manufacturing process for monocrystalline technologies is more complicated (and more expensive). Amorphous silicon cells – often called “thin film” because they absorb sunlight more easily – can be deposited on a broader range of substrates and are thus suitable for flexible, rigid and curved surfaces. The catch is that amorphous cells are less efficient than crystalline based cells.

Other promising technologies in the solar-energy pipeline are based on materials such as cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper-indium-diselenide (CIS), which are potentially more efficient than amorphous solar cells and less-expensive to manufacture than crystalline technologies.

The top 10 poly-crystalline silicon solar PV modules according to Solar Plaza are listed below. Take a gander at Solar Plaza’s list for details about specific makes and models tied to these rankings.

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Efficiency is only one of the important numbers to look at before deciding on a photovoltaic system. Living in Phoenix the thermal coefficient is very important because as the temperature goes up the efficiency goes down. The rate of degradation is also important if you intend this as a long term investment. My Kyocera panels are “only” about 14% efficient but are well suited to my needs. The panels are only part of the system. The inverter is the the other major piece for a grid tied system. Get a top notch one, or top rated micro-inverters. We have a Fronius IG Plus that can handle our 120° heat.

We have had our 5kW grid tied system for just over a year now. We are extremely happy with it. Our electric costs are about half of what they were. We would have bought an even bigger system but 5kW was the maximum SRP (our utility) would compensate for. By the way, our ROI (Return on Investment) is about 12%. I can’t get that kind of return anywhere, yet alone with complete safety. Its like money in the bank… only with far better interest rates.

You forgot to mention that GaAs scores much better than Si… too, and OPEL Technologies Inc. have the best solar combination on the market with their single & dual axis trackers in conjunction with their superior solar panels… You also may want to look at their POET Technology, that will change the landscape in the tech field. Go see the presentation made on Ihub for more info, just type the ticker OPL & check it out! GLTA

Take this report and its research as presumed flawed. The author noted the most efficient modules based on vendor specs was 16%. He idenditifed LDK as 3rd on the list with 15.67% efficiency. This is the LDK 200D series module specifications. LDK has a model 260D listed on their website with 15.93% efficiency placing them second in the report.

In addition a simple check on 3 top manufactures of solar modules Trina Solar, Yingli Solar and Sunpower all have module spec sheets on their websites in excess of 16%.

Trina Solar TSM-210 has an efficiency rating of 16.4% Yingli Solar Pand-265MM has an efficiency rating of 16.47% Sunpower E19 Mono has an efficiency rating of 19.3%